The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-03
ALICE FREEMAN.
Her Resignation of the Presidency OF
Wellesley Female College,

ltef heSlRnaUlOn Ol ILO LISSiNtViI~J ~
Wellesley Female College
New YoRK, oct. Miss Alice Freeman,
whose resignation from the Presidency OF
Wellesley is giving the trustee of that IN
stitution SO much disturbances is a woman
of b, more than ordinarily endowed with
good looks and with an mfaiing charm of
manner. She is somewhat above medium
height with a very graceful figure. she
has an abundance of dark brown hair,
forehead broad rather than high, clear
complexion with n glow of red under the
healthy skin; regular features, ana large,
brown, steady eyes that are, perhaps, the
secret of her charm. She dresses quietly
always, but with great deal of taste, her
dresses seeming, though without apparent
effort atsoriginality, to belong to her ana
not to be imagined on anyone else, Miss
Freeman is a woman in earnest or she
wouldn't suit New England, but she is not
in earnest in exactly the over-eager New
England way. She has Western hreeziness
and pose about her that has carried her
easily through more work than is comforta-
BILE for the nervous Boston type
Miss Freeman entered Michigan Uni
versity when she was girl of H. Inc
strong institution at Ann Arbor has always
been liberal to women, but it was less so
then than now. She had something like
dozen or fifteen classmates of the sex
feminine, who had some difficulty in max
ing themselves feel quite at home in the
class room with more than 100 men. The
handful of girls felt themselves on trial as
it were Faculty and students alike were
divided upon the question of their welcome.
Nobody cared to go the length of insisting
ON the exclusion of women, but good por-
tion of the young men would have liked the
college better with no gowns about and felt
fka.,tts ion
the attitude of the Eastern men among the
professors. Olney, the mathematician;
Winchell, the geologist; the President and
some others were sturdily on the side of the
girls. however, who-conscious OF the
sentiment for and against them-were put
on their mettle to prove their right to the
place their title to which was IN such dis
pute They worked hard one and all, keep
ing each other up to concert pitch and
looking out for one another's health, with
solicitude born of the importance they
attached tc it. There was an esprit de corps
among them that kept their ranks solid,
their courage high, that insisted on the best
work each was capable of, but made exer-
else and plenty of sleep to keep them in
working trim prime duty. Or course the
girls took honors, Miss Freeman ranking
high in mathematics especially. or course
they made friends and helped forward
co-education in Michigan University where
the presence of women is now so much
matter of course that when the school
celebrated its fiftieth anniversary this
summer all the doctors of the medical
alumni cheered when DIR. Lucy M Hall,
recently resident physician at Nassar, took
her seat as presiding officer of their semi
centennial gathering
Miss Freemans father. who helped his
daughter through school cordially, was not
a wealthy man, and during the latter part of
her course she taught preparatory classes in
Greek aud Latin to pay her bills. After
graduation she continued to teach, first in a
high school, afterward in the preparatory
school of the college She was "A when she
went to Wellesley a. professor of history.
She was close student and already widely
read in political science. She brought life
and energy to the young school, and to
those who knew her and it, it was no sur
prise when, two years later, now six years
ago she was asked to be its President. She
was a Young woman for such a plac'.. 20
only, but the difference her regime effected
in Wellesley was perceptible at one Beef
steak for breakfast was the first of her rules,
and beefsteak was only one of the innova-
tions that made what had been hotbed of
invalds one of the healthiest schools in the
country She did away with the constant
gong ringing that made the girl students
nervous, she simplified the housework re-
quired of them, and was able to exact more
study and higher grade of scholarship,
while yet making rosy cheeks and bright
ewes almost universal where break downs
had been common before 1t is not too
much to say that the spirit of the school
became entirely change'. There used to be
a tale that Mr.. Durant lectured a student
for buying a nosegay for teacher instead
of sending the pennies it cost to the foreign
missions. Under Miss Freeman the atmos-
| phere became healthily clear, though the
girls were never wanting in good works,
organizing entertainments for the inmates
of the Woman's Reformatory at Sherburn,
when such diversions were permitted ON
holidays.
Alice Freeman was an ambitious student.
She is "a strong woman, with we'll
balanced head, rare administrative faculty
and singular womanly .charm. As Prof.
Palmers wife, she will not hide her light
under bushel, but it will shine as brightly
as before